


And an Umbrella in My Drink

by delighted



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: First Kiss, First Time, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 10:22:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11598651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: An afternoon hike turns into something a whole lot more, and dang it but it’s about time, isn’t it?





	And an Umbrella in My Drink

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe a bit rough and rushed, but I feel like it fits, so I’m leaving it... plus I just wanna write more! *grins*

“Why are we doing this?”

“Because it’s fun!”

“It’s really not, you know.”

“Danny, look at all these beautiful plants! Look at that flower there.” Steve stopped suddenly, and Danny, who was not paying attention to the things Steve was saying, let alone pointing out, bumped into him. “Look at the leaf structure, the pattern of the petals.”

“Who are you? Botanical Guide Steve? Can we please just finish the hike and go home and go to bed?”

It really hadn’t been the smartest choice of words, if he’d thought about it.

Steve turned slowly around to face Danny. The look in his hazel eyes was as lush as the landscape. “Do you mean that?” Each word was syrupy, like he’d poured it from one of the flowers he’d stopped to admire.

Pressing his fingertips into his eye sockets as if he might make this entire day vanish if he tried hard enough, Danny muttered: “ _Of course I don’t you complete idiot_.” Well, muttered and spat each word out like he was sick of saying it. Does that still count as muttering?

Thing was, Danny had been slipping up and saying things like that a lot lately. And Steve had been responding to them as if he’d meant them literally. Turning it into asking if Danny was offering.

Things like “Well, I’m off for bed” were responded to with things like “Can I come with you?”

It seemed like every time Danny turned around, Steve was there, ready to add a layer of meaning to whatever he was doing, whatever he was saying, that just wasn’t really there.

It wasn’t really there, right?

Danny’d been denying it so much lately, he’d kind of started feeling like it must actually be there. (If that sounds strange, you’ve never experienced being willfully misinterpreted, and count yourself lucky.) But Danny had started, at some point probably in the last week, to feel as though he were slowly, inexorably, going just a tiny bit insane.

Either that or he was in love with his partner.

Then again, maybe they weren’t two separate things. In which case, he really was in trouble. But then, Danny being in trouble and Steve being in Danny’s life had gone hand in hand from day one. And Danny didn’t really think he could remember what life was like without that.

By which he meant, of course, without Steve.

“Can we at least take a break? I’m on vacation, please remember. I am supposed to be having a relaxing time. I should be sitting by the pool being brought fruity drinks with umbrellas in them by a cabana boy, not sitting under plants that look like they could be used as umbrellas. I want to be having my feet rubbed with coconut oil, not stubbing my toes on coconuts.” He slumped onto a rock at the side of the trail as he finished. His feet really did hurt, he wasn’t kidding. Not that he’d actually stubbed his toe on a coconut, that was a bit of creative embellishment. Some of the leaves really did look like they had probably been used as umbrellas at some point though. And he really did wish he was sitting by a pool, being brought a drink by someone attractive. His choice of cabana _boy_ , specifically... well, he put that down to it being simply the popular term. It didn’t really mean anything.

Steve hadn’t missed it though, and the corners of his mouth had quirked up just for a split second before he straightened his expression. “Is that really what you want?”

“Yeah, it really is.” He sounded exhausted. Resigned, even. And something else he couldn’t quite tell yet... but he felt like he was giving in to something, even though he didn’t quite understand what he meant by that.

“You don’t like being out in nature like this? Surrounded by all this beauty?”

“Steven, for fuck’s sake. How long have you known me?”

“I just thought it would be nice to have a good walk in the woods, be out of the city, away from everything, away from all the people. You’ve been complaining so much about the crowds, the traffic, everything driving you crazy.”

“I always complain about that.”

That split second upturn of the lips again.

“Just shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Yeah, but you were thinking it. Can we please finish this hike and get out of this flower infested jungle?”

“Danny, you really are a grumpy old man, you know that, right?”

“I’ve been told that, yes. And if you think that upsets me, you really should think a little harder.”

“Alright. Well, we’re almost back to the car, so if you want, I will take you home, bring you drinks, and rub you with coconut oil.”

“My _feet_ , Steven, my feet. Jesus.”

“We can start there and see where it goes,” Steve offered as he helped Danny to stand.

That Danny didn’t respond at all said something. He wasn’t sure what it said, but it definitely said something.

Turns out Steve hadn’t been kidding, they really had been close to the car. And that made Danny wonder if Steve hadn’t been playing him just a little—waiting for him to break, pushing him to be a grump... his head was a bit muddled from the heat and the humidity and the overwhelming amount of green in the landscape, but he was pretty sure that would be the kind of thing Steve would do to him. To get... what? Get him to say something Steve could use against him? _Against_ him... against that tree... against the wall in a cool, air conditioned building more likely... wait, what? He shook his head to stop that line of thinking and tried to focus.

Fortunately Steve was paying attention and seemed to realize that Danny was not, because they’d made it back to the Camaro, and Steve helped Danny in, then went around to the driver’s side and got in. He handed Danny a fresh bottle of water that was surprisingly cold, and Danny was about to question how he’d managed that, but couldn’t be sure Steve wouldn’t turn that into something suggestive as well, so he left it.

Once he’d finished half the water, Steve headed down the mountain. Danny drifted a bit. Steve was driving oddly slowly and carefully—for all he seemed ordinarily to enjoy treating Danny’s precious car as an off road military vehicle—and it evidently lulled Danny into some false sense of security, because when he came back to awareness it was because they’d stopped at a small parking lot by a bit of beach access, flanked by food trucks, filled with picnic tables, and a handful of locals, lingering in the early afternoon shade under the ironwood trees.

Allowing himself a moment to sigh inwardly and then gather himself for whatever it was Steve had in mind here, Danny turned to face Steve, not saying a word, raising his eyebrows just slightly, and waiting for Steve to explain.

Those damn lips barely moved before Steve schooled them into a neutral expression. “Just some food, Danny. Protein after our hike. Maybe a shave ice to cool you down. Then I’ll take you home.”

Danny wasn’t hungry, but shave ice actually sounded really nice right about now, so he didn’t reply, but got out of the car and slammed the door a little too hard but not as hard as he’d wanted to. He didn’t have to look to know Steve was suppressing a smirk. Without discussing a plan, Steve went to the shrimp truck for protein while Danny headed to the shave ice truck. He picked cherry for himself and a mix of all of the obnoxious Hawaiian ones that made no sense and were terrifying colors, for Steve. The shave ice line was a bit longer than the shrimp line, and so by the time Danny had theirs, Steve had already picked a table, at the edge of the clearing, underneath a low-hanging tree that was covered in purple flowers. It was close enough to evening that the breeze was picking up, and the crowd was mellow, and the shrimp really did smell really good and Danny realized maybe he was hungry after all, and a tiny very small part of his brain attempted to suggest that this was actually not a completely horrible way to spend a day off.

Steve didn’t flinch when Danny set the multi-colored monstrosity in front of him, and frighteningly, he seemed to enjoy it. Maybe giving Steve so much sugar, not to mention artificial coloring, wasn’t the best idea, as Danny remembered the one time he’d let Charlie mix all the flavors and hadn’t been able to get him to bed until he crashed, in the middle of the living room, far past his bedtime, having spent three solid hours running in circles.

After that thought, though, Danny’s mind kind of shut down and he allowed himself to just relax and enjoy the setting, the food, and, okay, okay, the company. Steve was being remarkably well behaved. He asked about the kids, he gave Danny updates on Mary and Joan. And then they talked sports. It was the kind of conversation you had with people you’d known well but hadn’t seen in a while, but it was kind of sweet. And Steve didn’t harass him, torment him, behave like a jerk, or any of his other usual attributes. It was refreshing. And maybe that had been Steve’s plan, because it left Danny off his guard, so that when Steve suggested they take a stroll on the beach and watch the sunset, Danny had agreed before he could think the better of it.

The beach was pretty much deserted, and as they walked, slowly, kicking the sand—having left their hiking shoes in the trunk of the Camaro, Steve drifted closer and closer to Danny, until they were brushing up against each other. Danny didn’t move away. At first he was being stubborn and holding to his set trajectory. But then he started to enjoy the contact. And when Steve’s fingers found their way tangling slightly with his own, he didn’t resist. There was this sense of relief? It was strange, but when he allowed his fingers to tighten around Steve’s, he found his breathing—which he hadn’t realized had been strained—eased, and he felt a flood of tension leave his body. The experience was so puzzling, so vivid, and so unfamiliar; it was one of those things where suddenly the light just looks different... almost like stepping into an immersive environment that confuses all of your senses, everything is heightened, everything feels surreal. The air looked orange. And it smelled like strawberries. And none of that made any sense at all, but it was true. So when they reached a part of the beach that was sheltered from the cove by some trees and Steve stopped and turned towards Danny, it wasn’t even Steve that made the move. Danny walked him up against the trunk of the nearest tree, tugged on his hand till he lowered his head enough, and kissed him. Long but soft, until he thought he would pass out. Pulling apart to gulp some air, Danny then dove back in, pressing even more of his weight against Steve, deepening the kiss, adding intensity and longing, fighting past the woozy feeling until he reached that heady place where everything is too clear and too sharp and you feel like you can see things you never knew existed.

“I still want an umbrella in my drink.”

Steve laughed, brushing Danny’s hair from his face with a touch that was so tender, so sweet, so loving, it utterly belied the kills Steve could have notched in his metaphorical belt. “Done,” he whispered, as he wrapped his arms around Danny, letting him come to rest against his broad chest, allowing the tree to hold them up, and sighing the most contented sigh Danny had ever heard in real life.

Repeating his words from earlier, admitting now maybe he had meant them _that_ way after all: “Now can we go home and go to bed?”

It wasn’t lost on Steve. “I thought you’d never ask.”

They held hands on the way home. Danny liked that it made Steve drive more thoughtfully, more slowly, more patiently. It occurred to him to wonder if he could hold his hand on cases and get him to move more slowly, more thoughtfully. That thought probably made him grin, because Steve suddenly said “What?” in a very suspicious tone.

“Oh, I was just thinking I might try and hold your hand on cases sometimes,” Danny teased.

For a moment it looked like Steve might object, but instead he brought Danny’s hand in his up to his lips and kissed it. “No, you won’t. Because you’re a great cop, and you’d never let anything stand in the way of you doing your best job.” His words were soft, but solid in the conviction, and it struck Danny—not for the first time, but not the hundredth either—that Steve really felt that way. Danny knew he was a good cop. But sometimes having super crazy action hero James Bond as your partner did things to your sense of your own ability and skill set. He knew Steve trusted him, valued having him by his side. But it had occurred to him at various times over the years to wonder how much of that had been in some part because of Steve’s obvious attraction to him. Steve had latched on to Danny before he could possibly have known what kind of a cop Danny was. And, maybe Danny’d always had a tiny part of him that had questioned that.

Before his line of thinking could go any further, they were pulling up in front of Steve’s place, and the thrill—and the anxiety as well—of what they were about to do flooded all other thoughts out of his head. It wasn’t that he thought he’d regret it. Once he made it past that first wall of reticence, he knew he was done for. And it wasn’t that he’d never been with another man before; he knew they both had. There’d been a drunken night many years ago where they’d confessed their experiences. Something had almost happened that night.... Thinking back, Danny wasn’t really sure why it hadn’t. They’d simply fallen asleep in bed together, and things had been a little awkward in the morning—though Danny’d always suspected that had mostly been because Steve had been hurt that nothing more had happened. They’d got over it quickly, because one of them had gotten injured and the other had stepped up and taken care of... who are we kidding, it was Steve who got hurt. And things had been back to normal.

No, Danny’s anxiety here was twofold. One, knowing Steve had wanted him for so long, he couldn’t help but feel his chances of living up to that were not stellar. And two, in complete and total honesty, he tended to be dominant in bed, and he wasn’t sure he would be with Steve—their years of partnership had created a level of equivocalness Danny had never experienced in a relationship before, and he didn’t have a sense of how that would affect his usual bedroom tendencies.

They hadn’t gotten out of the Camaro yet. Steve seemed to be waiting for Danny to make that move. Looking over at his partner, Danny saw reflections of his own anxiety.

“Nervous?” Steve asked softly, squeezing Danny’s hand.

Danny smiled. He’d heard Steve’s own nerves in his voice, and somehow that had done it for him. “Not anymore,” he replied, and dropping Steve’s hand, he got out of the car. “Come on, babe. This has been too long coming.”

Steve was clearly trying not to look like an over-eager Labrador going after a ball, but when he chose to do the jump-and-slide over the hood of the car, he blew any pretense of cool, and Danny laughed. They’d be just fine, he realized. Yeah, it would be utterly unlike any relationship either of them had ever had, but that was probably exactly what they both needed.

Taking the same action hero approach to mounting the stairs, Steve kicked off his boots on the way, and actually threw his shirt over the railing—both before Danny had even started up the stairs. He made a mental note to have a little conversation with his soon-to-be-lover about protocol with clothing removal. But the thought in all likelihood wouldn’t stick around, because by the time Danny made it to the bedroom, his partner was naked on the bed, in a pose that would have made Danny laugh if it didn’t turn him on so completely.

“Eager much?” He toed off his own boots and left them by the door, pulling his shirt over his head with one hand and undoing his shorts at the same time. Two could play the clothing removal game. _Is everything going to be a competition in this relationship?_ somepart of his mind asked, but he told it to fuck right off, and crawled on the bed, making his way towards the stunningly beautiful man who had laid himself out for his pleasure.

They went fast, then they took it slow. They intently explored, they simply stared. They touched, they kissed, they whispered, they shouted, they laughed, and yes, they cried. And when they finally felt they’d exhausted all possibilities for their first go, they fell asleep.

Sometime in the darkest middle of the night, Danny awoke to find Steve gazing at him.

“How long have you been awake?” He mumbled, scooting closer, and wrapping Steve’s arm around himself like a blanket.

He felt Steve grin in response. “I didn’t want to wake you. You’re so peaceful when you sleep.”

“I wouldn’t have minded,” Danny whispered. “If you did it right.”

Steve laughed. “Oh, so there’s a right and a wrong way to wake you up, is there?”

“Of course.”

He was pretty sure two hazel eyes had just rolled exasperatedly. “And do I get to know what the right way is?”

“Nope. You’re going to have to figure that one out on your own, I’m afraid.”

“Mmmm,” Steve said to Danny’s hair. “Challenge accepted.”

They found more new ways of exploring each other’s bodies, and it was starting to get light before they began to drift towards sleep again. Danny decided he should have known they’d be so well matched in bed. He tried not to regret the years they could have had this and hadn’t because they—no, _he_ —had been too stubborn to allow it. Steve guessed his thoughts, and attempted to shush and kiss them away.

“Don’t ever regret what we didn’t do,” an adorably sleepy Steve told Danny’s lips. “Only ever focus on what we should do next.”

It was a sentiment they applied to work, and it was slightly odd to hear it apply to their moves in bed as well... and yet also perfectly, perfectly fitting. He fell asleep with a smile on his lips, and he couldn’t have said the last time that might have happened. Certainly it had been far too long.

The next time Danny woke, the sun was fully up, and Steve was missing from the bed. But in the same moment he realized those two things he noticed a third. The smell of coffee. The smile that spread across his lips then was smug and satisfied, and it was really hard to not regret missing out on this side of Steve for so many years, but he swallowed the thought and vowed to focus on making the most of it now.

Which was going to be easier than he might have thought, because at just that moment, Steve appeared in the doorway, completely naked and carrying two coffee mugs, each with a cocktail umbrella balanced precariously on the rim.

“You are a complete and utter goof, you do know that, don’t you?”

“You’re welcome, Detective Williams,” Steve replied, setting the mugs down on the side table, and launching himself at Danny. They’d never be able to make up for all those missed years, but they might as well try.


End file.
